Blog 10 - 11/8/10

Hola peeps! Thanks for logging in.

I want to look at *sparkly* new technology. I have a favorite site for this: http://www.yankodesign.com/ Yanko is about the DESIGN of technology.

This will be the ONLY time when I don't mind you blogging on Tuesday, by the way.

Follow these instructions:

1. Go to Yanko.

2. Go to the bottom of the page and click on the link after the page numbers that says "Inspire Me." Ask your neighbor to help you find it if you can't.

3. Tell me which page you landed on. You may not use the first five pages.

4. Pick a product and tell me WHY you like it or how you think it could change our lives.

I need you to be grown enough to follow directions and I want opinions with reasons!!! If you can't give me that much effort, then I can't give you enough effort to type a 100 in your grade book!

Talk to me . . .

Blog 8 - 10/25/10

Hiya! Thanks for logging in!

I would like to continue our exploration of advancing automotive technology.

Recently I've been seeing a Lexus commercial that highlights their new driving simulator. It's all round and sparkly and stuff, so of course it caught my attention.

When I started looking into this new piece of technology I was surprised to find out what a big deal it is. Big. Dang. Deal. Apparently, what had happened was, Lexus decided they needed to take their simulator to a higher level and actually add some elements that have been missing in previous simulators. Elements like 360-degree views, sideways accelerations, outdoor conditions and driver conditions (what happens if the driver is distracted, sleepy, etc.).

Inside the simulator there's a full size Lexus vehicle on a turntable. So not only is the vehicle moving inside the simulator, but the simulator is moving inside the building that was built for it that's over a football field in length. Sweetness! I would so love to get my hands on one of these.

Does anybody remember that simulator ride at the fair where you get inside thing shaped moderately like a space shuttle, and it has video and it moves up and down and is supposed to make you think you're on a shuttle launch? Yeah . . . it's kinda like that thing but a million times better.

I also found a link to a company in Sweden that's been building simulators since the 70's. It's the last link on today's list and I thought it had some pretty good stuff.

So read the articles for the week. Please, for the love of Pete, DO NOT push play on any video or The Man will be calling me from across town.

To get credit for the week please answer one of the following questions:

1) Where do you see this technology heading?
2) What do you think happens to the simulator if you crash? How do you think they would address that?
3) How do you think this technology is linked to video game technology?

As always, if you'd like credit for this week you'll need to wait to Thursday to answer and you'll need to answer one of the questions. Maybe we can be more successful with that this week.

Talk to me . . .

http://blogs.edmunds.com/strategies/2010/10/lexus-simulator-seeks-to-create-research-realistic-environment.html

http://www.kbb.com/car-news/all-the-latest/lexus-shows-off-its-ultimate-driving-simulator

http://www.gizmag.com/lexus-unveils-driving-simulator/16630/

http://www.vti.se/templates/Page____11865.aspx

Blog 7 - 10/18/10

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I'm not done with this Google Car yet. It's boggling my mind.

I brought the video for us to watch this week. It makes the concept a bit more real I think. It also states some facts that weren't in the articles. Such as "it's not meant to replace the driver," and "Google has no idea when this car would be ready for the public."

The BUQUAD article poses some interesting questions. Questions such as "What happens in challenging situations, such as where traffic is being directed by a policeman?" and "How would you earn a drivers license for this vehicle?"

http://buquad.com/2010/10/18/google-makes-your-car-think-for-itself/

The TECHCRUNCH article is kinda funny. It's about how people were actually spotting this car on the road for months and had no idea what it's purpose was. Also? The article makes the point that if you are driving down the road taking pictures / videos of other cars, YOU'RE the reason we need the Google Car in the first place!

http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/09/google-car-video/

The Daily Beast article is the best one I've found yet. It states that everybody was surprised at this technology because they thought it was 5 to 10 years out. It also talks about sticky issues, like merging into traffic which it calls a combination of social etiquette and Newtonian physics. How would the car handle that if we've taken the human element out?

Also, apparently this was all preceeded by a challenge issued by the Pentagon in 2004. The Department of Defense wanted to encourage automotive engineers to brings robotics to vehicles in hopes that by 2015 we could have completely robotic convoys moving equipment and supplies into and out of war zones, so that fewer lives would be at stake. How could this technology end up helping our soldiers? We haven't even thought about those implications yet.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-10-11/google-robot-car-the-future-of-cruise-control-convoys-car-sharing/full/

So for blog credit this week, answer one of the questions that have been posed. Go back and READ MY WORDS and figure it out. Wait to post until Thursday if you'd like credit.

Talk to me . . .

Blog 6 - 10/11/10

Howdy Homies! Thanks for logging in!

Are you reading my words yet? Or are you skipping right ahead to the links? READ MY WORDS!

Also? Don't post on Tuesday unless we're looking at Yanko. From now on if you do you'll have a zero for the week. I want you to THINK about the topics and let them work on you. I don't want ill-informed opinions with no thought behind them.

Having said all that, let's get on with this weeks blog.

I want to go to car technology. There's a lot of really good stuff in here, so we'll be on cars and their changing technology for several weeks.

This week I want to talk about the newest buzz where cars are concerned. Google has very recently announced that they are developing a car that will drive itself using video cameras, laser range finders and range sensors.

To which I say . . . !!!

I don't think I'm ready for this. I don't think I trust technology enough to give up control of my car. I don't think I trust technology enough to want to be on the road with a bunch of other people who have given up all their control as well.

Go take a look at these articles. Please wait to blog until Thursday.

Talk to me . . .

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9190498/Google_on_new_path_developing_self_driving_cars?taxonomyId=18

http://motorcrave.com/google-working-on-a-self-driven-car/9335/

http://www.smartplanet.com/technology/blog/thinking-tech/googles-self-driving-car/5445/

Blog 5 - 10/4/10

Hola peeps! Thanks for logging in.

This week I want to do something that we will do several times throughout the year. I want to look at *sparkly* new technology. I have a favorite site for this:

http://www.yankodesign.com/

Yanko is about the DESIGN of technology. This will be the ONLY time when I don't mind you blogging on Tuesday, by the way.

Follow these instructions:

1. Go to Yanko.
2. Go to the bottom of the page and click on the link after the page numbers that says "Inspire Me." Ask your neighbor to help you find it if you can't.
3. Tell me which page you landed on. You may not use the first five pages.
4. Pick a product and tell me WHY you like it or how you think it could change our lives.

Here are a couple of entries for example:
Page 27. Wall Mounted Washer. This one is hard for me to believe. I'm not sure about what kind of job it would do. Also? It looks REALLY small. I wonder how many loads I would have to do in that to equal one real size load?!? Also on Page 27. I'm diggin' that watch without hands that just shows the color of the time. Who needs watch hands anyways?

This is a DISCUSSION. I want opinions with reasons!!! If you can't give me that much effort, then I can't give you enough effort to type a 100 in your grade book!

Talk to me . . .

Blog 4 - 9/27/10

Hola Peeps! Thanks for logging in.

So sticking with the subject of medical technology, I thought I would get a little personal this week. This past year was a tough one in the Lanham household, as we were visited by the big C word. Cancer. Scary just to look at isn't it? Kinda makes my skin crawl just seeing it sitting there.

Anyway, Mr. L (who I lovingly refer to as Better Half) was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year. On the very first day of summer vacation he had a radical robotic prostatectomy. That's right, ROBOTIC. Oh the technology implications . . . His surgeon actually sat ACROSS THE ROOM as he operated on Mr. L! Just like a video game. He has these goggles he looks into and he moves his thumbs and across the room the robotic arms that were INSIDE MY HUSBAND proceeded to do all the things that surgeons used to do the old way. Except when he was done, Mr. L only had 5 small incisions instead of one great big huge one. MUCH faster recovery time.

So go take a look at the pictures of the robot. Also, take a look at the article about Catherine Mohr (girl power!), who is one of the designers of the Da Vinci system.

Please read Tuesday. Please blog Thursday. You may give an opinion about the use of the robot. You may reference another article about the robot (please leave me a link). You may give me an opinion about Catherine Mohr.

Please remember: you must advance the discussion in some manner to get credit. "That's cool" or "I like that" is not advancing the discussion. Not now, not in May at the end of the year. You must TELL ME WHY!

You may also reply to someone else's post.

http://tinyurl.com/2mhxoh
http://singularityhub.com/2009/07/27/catherine-mohr-promises-more-robotic-surgery/

Talk to me . . .

Blog 3 - 9/20/10

Howdy Folks! Thanks for logging in!

Continuing our discussion of advancing medical technology, I want to take a look at this inventor named Dean Kamen. He was approached by the Department of Defense and asked to make a prosthetic arm that would more closely mimic the movements of a real arm with real fingers on the end of it.

To that end, he invented this arm which he named the Luke Arm (as in Skywalker). I want to watch a short video about Kamen from the TED conference, and then I want you to go read about the arm.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/dean-kamens-luke-arm-prosthesis-readies-for-clinical-trials

Please spend Tuesday reading so that we can be prepared to blog on Thursday.

In order to receive credit for this weeks blog you may do one of two things:

1) Talk about where you can see this technology going. How can we benefit from this type of technology in the future?

2) Find other articles on either Dean Kamen or the Luke arm and tell us what those articles said. When you use resources that I don't send you to, you have to give me the link to YOUR article. Also? Once an article has been quoted 5 times it can't be used again.

Talk to me . . .